Novel Compare and Contrast

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a classic novel that is uniquely written by Zora Neale Hurston. Another novel that has a similar themes is Sweat which is also written by Hurston. They are both powerful narratives about the lives of black people struggling to live their lives free of oppression. Both are believed to be based on personal experiences of the author when she was growing up. The shared theme of the novels is finding love and fighting against racism. As well as similar themes we see that the two Hurston novels use similar literary elements.

The theme of love appears repeatedly in books and movies. The difference between these two novels and many others is that the central characters will not be satisfied until they find true love. Although the circumstances of the stories are different the goals of their characters are the same. Janie wants to find an ideal husband for herself much like the image she has in her mind of a younger self laying underneath a blossoming pear tree which to her is a symbol of love. She searches her entire life to find a husband who can recreate that image in a sense. Likewise in Sweat, Delia and Sykes are married but can not find the love they once shared when they were newly wedded. Sometimes love can have low points in relationships which we can clearly see in both novels when the husbands physically abuse their spouses. The wives react differently to these actions; Delia retaliates while Janie chooses to move on from the event immediately.

Race is an underlying issue that surrounds each novel and made the stories somewhat controversial at the time of their release. Janie and Delia are the main characters who live in a time of racism and a time where women hold minimal rights and respect of men. Overcoming these things is difficult for both women to achieve. Slavery is not present in either novel but the sense of racial tension is still there. Janie grows up in the backyard of the home that her grandmother is a servant to. She also has an encounter later in her life during her marriage to Tea Cake in which a woman by the name of Mrs. Turner is strikingly racist towards her own race. Delia does not face such outright racism but the fact that some view her as a slave. This is similar to the experience that Janie had with her first and second husbands as they treated her poorly at times and expect her to serve them as a servant might. Since the treatment that the wives are given is not right they both gain self-confidence and independence as Janie and Delia change to desire more freedom for themselves.

Since the novels share an author it makes sense that the writing styles resemble each other. Both have dialect written as it may have sounded when spoken by African Americans living in the south. This style is very unique and allows the reader to have a more realistic idea of what the conversations would have been like. The setting of both stories is set in Florida and is based on Hurston’s own life growing up in Eatonville, Florida. The time at which the stories are set are similar as well as the locational setting. Symbolism plays a prominent role in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Sweat. The first novel shows this in a number of ways but most significant of all is the ideal picture of love that Janie has. The blossoming pear tree in the springtime which represents love and happiness to her. The second novel shows symbolism in that the church represents the priorities of the main characters and their actions. As soon as Sykes’ actions become violent she chooses to switch her church membership to another church nearby. This shows that she does not wish to be apart of a church that has beliefs not in line with what her husband’s actions reflect.

Janie and Delia are the main focus of both stories and we see a lot of similar traits that each of them possess. These women want to play an important role in their relationships with their husbands in order to feel like they are meaningful to them. Janie struggles to find this over the course of her three marriages. The three men treated her differently and had different personalities but the results were mostly the same. She ran away, one she became unhappy with, and one turned abusive after he wanted to show he held power over Janie. All this to show that none of the men that she were perfect and their flaws hurt Janie in different ways. Each man had certain priorities and not too often did they involve their wives into those things. Jody and Tea Cake dreamed of better lives but later on Jody became increasingly power hungry while Tea Cake wanted Janie to be apart of everything they did together. Delia is not the same in her relationship circumstances as she has only one spouse during the story. Although that it is the case, Delia faces similar problems with her husband. He becomes abusive while also being involved in an affair. Things end badly for them when Delia accidently kills Syke which is the case for Janie and Tea Cake too.

These stories both share plot, theme, and literary device similarities. The author wrote two excellent novels with comparable ideas that are at the foundation of the book. From both of these books elements of racism and overcoming stereotypes can be learned from and understand more from a personal narrative. Although these books are fiction, each contain events that are real life events or based on real happenings. Hurston is a fantastic author who should be remembered for these classic novels.

By Ty Frazier